by Evil_Toaster
Top Laners:
If you take teleport, don't just take it because you see LCS players always take it. Use it the same way. If you take teleport and your enemy team doesn't have teleport, invade at level 1 with your team, you can always just teleport back to your lane to be there on time. There's no way your top laner can be in the bottom jungle because they will get to lane late if they try. Just invade the bottom jungle with your team and teleport to lane after. Everyone gets ahead. Additionally, communicate to your team you need wards to teleport to. Teleport is only as useful as how much you can utilize it. Ignite gives you kill pressure in lane, Teleport gives you split push pressure in late game.
Alternatively, if you do decide to take Ignite, make sure your level 2 all-in combo potential with Ignite can kill. I don't care if you have to do the math on the damage and armor and everything to know, just know. If your opponent needs to be at 367 health for two of your abilities, three auto attacks, and ignite to kill, then try to get them to that range before you go for it. You can even make an unfavorable trade if it means getting them in lethal range as long as you stay out of their lethal range. If you hit level 2 first, this is even easier, as they'll have lower health than you when they're still level 1. If your opponent also doesn't have teleport, you can even go for an all in knowing it won't kill, since you will force the enemy out of lane and they can't teleport back after recalling. Just make sure their ensuing Ignite combo won't kill you in the process.
If you force your opponent out of lane, you can shove your lane and put pressure on the enemy jungle. Putting in a deep ward can save you from a gank, clear other laners to play aggressive, open up counter jungling opportunities for your jungler, and sometimes you can catch their jungler with low health and steal a buff, especially if you're on blue side. You can also spend this time farming Wight or Golems.
Junglers:
Plan your first gank from the loading screen and optimize your clear path accordingly. Look at the lane match-ups, predict how the lanes will look like at 3 minutes. If you see like fuckin' Shen vs. Mordekaiser in top lane, you can probably assume by the time you clear your jungle, that Shen could use a gank. Start at the bottom side jungle buff, clear a small camp, clear second buff, gank.
Don't take wolves and wraiths if you're going to gank at level 3. I still see junglers go blue->wolves->wraiths->red->gank when only one small camp is needed to reach level 3. Some junglers can delay their second buff if it means getting level 4 before the first gank, but it depends on the jungler and your plans.
If you have ANY form of health regeneration/lifesteal/damage reduction/whatever, measure how many health potions you actually need to clear the jungle with little assistance or interruption, and add one for safety. Some junglers can get by the jungle with one or no health potions, and some need exactly 2 or 3. Take 4 (max with new machete start) if you need them, but if you can skip out on a few, you can effectively speed up your first buy by saving the gold. I see a lot of junglers end up with several potions at the end of their clear that they end up never using, that could be money spent elsewhere. Do keep in mind, however, that in the case of an invade or anything out of the ordinary, you might need the potion, which is why I say take one extra. If you end up with enough extra gold left, you could stand to take an early ward.
If you want to be super nice to your side laners, leave Wight and double Golems alone. Their base stats are determined at the time they spawn. Your blue side bot laners, after 5 minutes of laning, can shove their lane and fall back to farm a quick and easy level 1 golem camp that will take them no time, or they can do it on their way back to lane after a recall. If you don't have ungodly clear speeds and can get as much as you can just farming the buffs, wolves and wraiths while ganking, you can sometimes leave low level camps up so your side laners can take them without crippling themselves. Once your side laners have a decent amount of life steal or defensive stats, you can take the camps when you're around and leave them for the laners when you're not. Just be sure to communicate this strategy to them or else it's for nothing.
Mid Laners:
You can literally win your lane by taking advantage of your level up timings. The moment you hit level 2, immediately upgrade your second ability and zone your opponent out of the minions that would cause them to reach level 2. If you push the first wave faster and exploit this, you can effectively zone your opponent out of the XP required to level up, and then they will level up later than you for the rest of the lane. Every time you level up, immediately upgrade an ability and chunk them. You'll have more damage, they'll have less HP, that's just all because you're a level above them, even if it's only for a few seconds. Look at your XP bar, count the minions you need to level up, and always be in position to take advantage of your power spike.
Stop warding the side river brushes in your lane when you have time to ward better. If your minions are shoved slightly past the middle, you can ward over the ledge from the river leading to wraiths. If your minions are shoved into their tower, you can also ward into wraiths which can give a lot of information on the jungler's position even if they're not there. If you have even more free time, you can run out to ward the circle bushes in the middle of the river (and clear any possible pink wards) or ward even deeper in the jungle if you know their position and won't intercept them.
Occasionally farm Wraiths and Wolves if your champion is capable of doing so.
• ADC's
Always shove the first minion wave as fast as possible. Just like I said for mid laners in the last tip, it's even more important for you and your support to shove down the first wave and hit level 2 before the opponents. An AD and a support at level 2 can cripple a level 1 AD with a full combo. It's four abilities against two. There's absolutely no way they can out trade you, especially considering your base stats will be higher. Shove the first wave as fast as possible, be in position for when you level up to damage your opponent, immediately level up your ability when the minion required to level up dies, and either zone them out of minion XP or just chunk them if they're in range. If you do this right, you can easily win lane off this exchange alone, especially if you force them to recall. But seriously, just get used to hitting control+ability the very moment the minion you need to level up dies.
Stop rushing Bloodthirster. When behind in lane, if you're rushing IE (not rushing BotRK) and you're forced to recall before 1550 gold, you can get away with buying another Doran's Blade and a Pickaxe. If the opponent comes back to lane with a BF Sword, the extra health from the Doran's Blade can eat one and a half auto's worth of damage from the BF Sword, you're only behind 18 damage (which is considerable, but not the end of the lane,) and your life steal is higher, all meaning even an auto-for-auto trade will be closer to even because you have more health and have higher life steal. Tack on the health potion you should be buying and things are almost even. The main disadvantage is you've slightly stunted your build path since the enemy can get to IE sooner than you.
Don't leave the shop without consumables. Don't recall if you only have just enough for whatever you plan on buying. Here are my general rules of thumb for consumable buying as ADC
1. At least one health potion, two is preferable, one is practically required. It's 35 gold for up to 400 gold worth of effective health in a fight.
2. One mana potion preferable. If a fight goes down you could end up with no mana. Also, if you get shoved under tower, you might need the mana to CS the wave properly, which will make the potion pay for itself.
3. One ward. Just take a ward. Even if you don't plan on warding, having a ward is important if you plan to fight someone anywhere near a brush, because you can pop a ward in the brush to give vision which means you can actually use your auto attack on them, and that can mean the difference in winning a fight.
4. Red Elixir if a dragon fight will be happening soon and you have the gold to spare. It's 350 gold for more than two Doran's Blades worth of stats, minus the lifesteal.
With this in mind, if you're waiting on recalling to pick up a BF Sword, try to stick around for another 100-200 gold to pick up consumables. Having more consumables than your opponent can easily give you a huge advantage. If you do end up at the shop with just enough for an item, wait for a health potion. It's a ruby crystal in a jar.
• Supports
Help your AD shove the first wave. If you can draw aggro from the minions and into yourself, the opponent's wave will then shove slower, meaning you're more likely to hit level 2 faster than them. You naturally have more health and armor than your ADC due to standard runes and masteries, and having more health potions, so it's okay for you to take a few auto attacks or minion damage if it can give you an advantage. Any auto attack you take from the opponent is an auto attack not going to your minions or the ADC.
Landing an auto attack on an enemy champion will cause all enemy minions in range to stop attacking your minions and focus you instead. This simultaneously harasses the opponent, and causes their lane to shove slower. If you do this near the side bushes, you can walk into them to break the aggro, walk out, attack again, and repeat the process. Doing this can also cause the enemy minions to walk closer to your side of the lane, making it easier for your ADC to CS, while forcing your opponents closer to have meat shield protection from minions. (This tip mostly applies to ranged supports.)
When the lane is shoved, an enemy has recalled, or you otherwise have free time, ward up the river. By leaving lane your ADC can get solo XP, giving them a level advantage you don't really need as much, and by putting wards in the tri brush, the path to blue buff, and the circle brush in the middle of the river, you have complete control and can play as aggressive as you need to be in lane. No jungler will cross to your side without you knowing (unless they can jump to the side river bush from their jungle if they're on purple side, in which case, ward that too.)
Also, general rule, always try to recall with your ADC. If you stay in lane, you'll be behind and you'll have to recall eventually, which will then force your ADC to be alone against both opponents, which can cause him to lose a lot of health, and by the time you get back, the ADC may have to recall again already because he got bullied. Even if not, the ADC can get zoned out of minions and be behind in XP even though he's getting solo lane XP. There's a lot to recall timing, but just try to recall together.
So yeah that's all I got related to early game stuff. Feel free to expand/include/correct on anything said or whatever.
(*These tips are made for lower ELO players. Things can and will be different at higher levels.)
